tertim wrote:The method of construction I am using is considered good practice in civil engineering RC works, in which I have many years experience.

The method you are using also uses compacted sand under the concrete and in many cases black plastic as a barrier in reinforced concrete works.I'll wait until I see the amount and thickness of rebar you use on your 4 metre span, but so far the start of the column from the footing with just 9 mm deformed rebar won't cut the weight over the distance, then add to it the weight of the pre-stressed slabs and it's very bad engineering practice and the reason so many buildings in Thailand collapse or tilt during the wet season.Before I built my house my wife and I went around Bangkok looking at houses and how they were built. I revisited some of those houses after the floods and found about 3% were not fit to live in any longer because of all the corner cutting. I'll defy you to use a one tonne (1,000 kg) block and chain to lift that 4 metre beam unless it's going to be the skinniest beam in the house with no rebar and no gravel and sand added. Your calculations are not correct, I'd have a rethink.Don't forget all the weight will end up at the joints of the column and beam, which is why engineers/building inspectors always look for hairline cracks at those joints before declaring a building unsafe.But as I said, it's your build and I'm just trying to help.

Where do you see the 9mm rebar in the columns?? The rebar is 12mm deformedMy calculation is 100% correct the beam is 40cm x 20cm x 4M long do the calculation yourself instead making wild guesses.

tertim wrote:Where do you see the 9mm rebar in the columns?? The rebar is 12mm deformed

From your photos on page one. But I must have failing eyesight, because if you tell me that's 12mm then it must be.And that's where I got what appeared to be your anger at the Thais for making soup that ran into the surrounding soil and thought you would have remembered and done something about it this time. Again I must have been mistaken.If the beams to span 4 metres are using 12mm rebar and are 20mm X 40mm X 400mm you can't have it m2 because it's actually m3 which is why I questioned your calculations. I used the concrete calculator http://www.concrete2you.com/Concrete-Calculator/ and here http://www.traditionaloven.com/conversi ... eight.html and I certainly do not come up with the same as you.And even when I did calculations with my builder for my house we were always short 1 or 2 metres that had to be mixed in the cement mixer and one time in the back of the cement truck and I can tell you a tonne comes up very quickly. Just one cubic metre of concrete weighs over two tonne.Good luck.

tertim wrote:Hi RR the pics I've posted only show the blinding concrete, this is to provide a clean environment for fixing the beam steel and shuttering the structural concrete is then poured.

I know, but now you are going to pour tons of concrete on top of the weaken concrete and expect the columns from the footings to carry all the weight for the first week. I'm not having a shot at you, I'm just pointing out facts. It's a good way to have beams that are sagging in the middle and have no structural strength. At least normally the ground is sand and has been compacted if you are going the way you are. And there's a long way between the footings columns and the where the beam links.You're letting your builder do it his way because of laziness.

You say you know but I wonder if you really do understand. The method of construction I am using is considered good practice in civil engineering RC works, in which I have many years experience.As I stated before the blinding concrete is there to provide a clean environment for placing the rebar and has the additional benefit of preventing the water leaching out of the uncured concrete.The maximum weight the ground will have to support for my largest beam(4M) of uncured concrete is 1000KG which works out at 1250KG/M2 , A person walking on the ground will produce a far greater force probably by a factor of ten.So yes I am very confident the ground will support the uncured concrete for 7 days and its not LAZINESS but good building practice.

Pop kan mai

I completely agree; blinding concrete is regarded as the best building practice anywhere. its a cheap weakmix to level out the base and fill those said voids. you cannot fill voids with visqueen; becasue you are creating different stresses on the ground bearing.building foundation trenches in the uk, you would never try to line a trench with visqueen, polystyrene yes...but thats for a completely different reason.what you are doing so far is top drawer.

eyecatcher wrote:I completely agree; blinding concrete is regarded as the best building practice anywhere. its a cheap weakmix to level out the base and fill those said voids. you cannot fill voids with visqueen; becasue you are creating different stresses on the ground bearing.

Pouring wet cement onto newly levelled ground that was subject to serious erosion before it was filled is not and never has been a best building practice, anywhere in the world.I'm trying to help here eyecatcher, just like I helped you at the start of your renovation when you sent me all those emails. I gave up when you ignored sound advise and let your large number of builders do what they wanted with your crooked beams and crooked columns before you finally sacked them.I've built my house and I've renovated my townhouse, I know what best practices are, they're called plans and sticking to them and making sure the builder and his crew know what the plans say.This is Thailand, I hate seeing people throw money out the window because they didn't listen and I listened a lot to the real builders like Geordie, Max, MGV12 and Bill and others I failed to mention. I can read plans, I can read maps, I know how a house should be built and to prove my best building practices worked with 6 and 8 metre beam spans and that the foundations were solid I had a flood surround the house for 3 months and it didn't move.If tertim wishes me to stop trying to help then all he has to do is say so, it'll save some pain in the fingers.I've always been a great believer in not posting after drinking.

Roger Ramjet wrote: I know how a house should be built and to prove my best building practices worked with 6 and 8 metre beam spans and that the foundations were solid I had a flood surround the house for 3 months and it didn't move..

My house was build 21 years ago to good Thai building practice on a swamp.. It was flooded and it never moved before, nor after the floods.. It's called "good THAI building practice I guess...with all the shortcomings and mistakes its rock solid and a house that I feel totally safe in despite having been built to 21 year old practices.

Think I'm going to believe on the above issue that two uk civil engineers beat a Aussie sarge on building practice

eyecatcher wrote:I completely agree; blinding concrete is regarded as the best building practice anywhere. its a cheap weakmix to level out the base and fill those said voids. you cannot fill voids with visqueen; becasue you are creating different stresses on the ground bearing.

Pouring wet cement onto newly levelled ground that was subject to serious erosion before it was filled is not and never has been a best building practice, anywhere in the world.I'm trying to help here eyecatcher, just like I helped you at the start of your renovation when you sent me all those emails. I gave up when you ignored sound advise and let your large number of builders do what they wanted with your crooked beams and crooked columns before you finally sacked them.I've built my house and I've renovated my townhouse, I know what best practices are, they're called plans and sticking to them and making sure the builder and his crew know what the plans say.This is Thailand, I hate seeing people throw money out the window because they didn't listen and I listened a lot to the real builders like Geordie, Max, MGV12 and Bill and others I failed to mention. I can read plans, I can read maps, I know how a house should be built and to prove my best building practices worked with 6 and 8 metre beam spans and that the foundations were solid I had a flood surround the house for 3 months and it didn't move.If tertim wishes me to stop trying to help then all he has to do is say so, it'll save some pain in the fingers.I've always been a great believer in not posting after drinking.

Dear Roger RamjetYou have become an unwelcome distraction to my build story, I'm very busy trying to get on with building and post pics of progress at the same time. I like to get comments positive or otherwise it certainly helps me and others who may read this to get a better understanding of building in Thailand.

< Flame removed - mod>

I wont see you later

<There is a report post feature {!}in the top right corner which should be used when you are unhappy with a post[s]. Your comments in this post are considered to be flaming and have therefore been removed. Feel free to contact me directly if you have a grievance ... MGV12 - moderator>

We have now completed the blinding for the ground beams and are now ready for the block work and shuttering.

No work yesterday as I had to go to immigration (a round trip of 300KM) for my 2nd visit to obtain a proof of address which the first paper they gave me was incorrect I queried it at the time but they assured me it was correct. I have bought and sold many motor bikes in Phuket so was well familiar with the paper required so I assumed being a different Province they had different papers (WRONG). Well now on my 2nd visit after much theatricals they said oh you want that paperyes correct that's what i want so give me the paper and I'll be on my way. Oh no you have to get a paper from the licencing dept in sisaket then bring that paper here and we can then issue you with the correct paper!!!!!! The saga continues and by the way I collected 1000B in fines on the journey to and from phuket for driving on red plates at night, So after 2 months, I still can't register my pickup in my name.

Decided a small land drain was required on the boundary next to the pond, this is where the serious water erosion has occurred over the years. The main land drains and ditch have prevented water from the adjacent property and the road from flowing across our land but we still had our own surface water to contend with, not much but enough to deposit about 1/2 m3 of our fill into the pond.

Decided to go with 100mm plastic pipe slits cut with angle grinder as used by previous posters

gravel fill complete

Outlet directed into pond

blinding completed

Water erosion area filled and grass planted to help bind the soil together.

The surveyor's from the land office turned up Wednesday 15 June on time as the appointment made 3 months ago. They replaced a concrete pin that couldn't be found and also found another pin that moved our corner boundary in 1,5M from the position in which we thought the pin was situated, although we are losing a few square metres it now means that we will probably be able to avoid building an expensive retaining wall, So I think the 6,4000B on the survey well spent.

We started to erect a post and wire fence along the one boundary, upon fixing the wire it soon became evident that the tie wires embedded in the posts where not placed with any degree of accuracy which resulted in the barbed not running parallel with each other. It looks a little odd but I suppose we can live with it until the bougainvillea we have planted establish themselves.

Struts, essential if you want a strong fence.

The soil erosion problem still continues albeit much reduced, decided to try and hold it back with some branches tied in to the the existing roots and old iron sheets to give the soil chance to settle and grow some vegetation to bind it together.

Tuesday 21 JuneThe blockwork for the beams is almost finished, it's a bit up and down but near enough as the paddy in me would say, good job it gets covered in concrete. Almost ready to start fixing the beam rebar will be glad when the slab is poured and we are erecting the columns.For those of you who have been following my build from the beginning you will know that my original intention was to build a house at the lower end of the budget (600,000B) even considered precast columns (pleased I ditched that idea) So my idea of building a raised house utilising the space underneath would have added another 200,000B + labour to my build cost which is too much for me to fund at this stage No matter how much I juggled the figures.I have reluctantly decided to continue with my original plan of building a single storey house

Planted bougainvillea, hopefully have the start of a beautiful hedge in 12 months.

On the soil-erosion, i'd get some bamboo and twigs. Cut the bamboo to size and hammer them in at the bottom until you have about 50-100cm height. Space at 15-20cm and then weave the twigs in. Same for covering the soil, just use some bamboo and twigs to create a frame that covers everything. After a while, the frame starts rotting away and other plants have then already settled and fixed the soil into place.cheers,Luc

schuimpge wrote:On the soil-erosion, i'd get some bamboo and twigs. Cut the bamboo to size and hammer them in at the bottom until you have about 50-100cm height. Space at 15-20cm and then weave the twigs in. Same for covering the soil, just use some bamboo and twigs to create a frame that covers everything. After a while, the frame starts rotting away and other plants have then already settled and fixed the soil into place.cheers,Luc

Hi lucThank you for advice Re the soil erosion problem unfortunately I have already placed the CI sheets so I will leave them insitu until after the rainy season and then use your method with the bamboo.Thanks for the tip.